De Lille faces expulsion from DA if found guilty

De Lille faces expulsion from DA if found guilty

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and DA chief whip in the City of Cape Town, Shaun August, are under investigation by the DA.

They are accused of leaking “confidential party documentation to the media” as the race to succeed De Lille as Western Cape DA leader turns ugly.

De Lille quit the party leadership role last month and August, the DA’s Cape Town metro chairman, is the candidate she is backing on Saturday.

Anneke Scheepers, spokesman for the DA, said the charges against De Lille and August were serious and could lead to their expulsion from the party.

“This is not a lightweight situation … there could be a serious outcome. If there is due cause, people will be sanctioned.

“The investigation is basically to see what transpired and then what role the individuals had in this incident.”

On Sunday Rapport said Josh Jordaan, the policy and strategy researcher in De Lille’s office, gave one of the paper’s journalists an official document.

It was reportedly offered as proof that August and fellow Cape Town councillor Matthew Kempthorne were victims of a hate campaign, having been found guilty by the DA federal executive of not following proper procedure in procuring party T-shirts in the run-up to last year’s local government elections.

They were fined about R50,000 each and given suspended membership terminations. Jordaan resigned on Monday.

DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said the leak of the documentation was “in violation of the party’s policy on the confidentiality of closed meetings”.